A SOUTHAMPTON student has been offered £120,000 of investment at the Future Worlds Dragons’ Den event.

Joshua Steer came to the den looking for funding to help grow Radii Devices, which aims to reduce the amount of time it takes to fit prosthetic limbs for people with lower limb amputations.

The 25-year-old bioengineering PhD student was the only entrepreneur to receive funding from all four dragons, which was held at the University of Southampton's Highfield Campus in front of 250 people.

Joshua has been working on the project for three years and said: "We are now hoping to use the money to make it into a product people can use and it could be available to use in hospitals in the next 18 months.

He said: "I’m really excited to have secured this investment. The Dragons definitely put me through my paces with their questions, so I was thrilled when they all wanted to invest.

"Thanks to the investment Radii Devices will be able to grow towards efficiently addressing the problem of poorly-fitting prosthetic sockets and so provide a better experience for millions of patients in the UK and globally."

He added: "There are huge opportunities in healthcare and medical technology and I think around 2012 prosthetic were getting more attention with the Paralympics so that was where the interest came from.

"I think everyone on of the day did a fantastic job and it was a great atmosphere."

He was also declared winner of the United Airlines People’s Choice award, which was decided by the studio audience. He won a return flight on United Airlines to the United States, to help the winner to grow their business further.

Joshua will receive advice and guidance from the four expert investors as he aims to improve health outcomes for thousands of patients.

The dragons who jointly invested in Joshua are James Vernon, who was co-founder of Brevan Howard and Sonja Lami, a fund manager at Insight Investment; the remaining dragons are Chris Broad, a long-standing Future Worlds mentor, and Andrew Doe, founder of confetti.co.uk.

Ben Clark, Future Worlds director, said: "I am thrilled that Joshua secured a record-breaking investment from the Dragons. Joshua is the latest example of the exceptionally talented student founders emerging from the University of Southampton who are going on to change the world with their ideas."